What If They Were Muslim?: Zionists and Islamophobes Try to Quash Academic Freedom

A planned Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) forum at Brooklyn College on February, 7th has brought together an angry assortment of Zionists and Islamophobes, including influential New York lawmakers who are threatening to slash the funding of Brooklyn College for hosting and co-sponsoring the event–describing it as “anti-Semitic.”

Plainly, this entire controversy has only one “principle” and one purpose: to threaten, intimidate and bully professors, school administrators and academic institutions out of any involvement in criticisms of Israel.

Democracy Now which invited opponents to the BDS event, including the NY lawmakers (they all rejected the invitation) had a revealing report on the controversy, including interviews with one of tomorrow’s speakers, Omar Barghouti, as well as Glenn Greenwald:

In a break with the past, when such pressure would likely have led to the administration of such a college caving-in to the demands of Dershowitz and his allies, Brooklyn College has stood its ground,

The college administration has so far stood their ground. Brooklyn College spokespeople have said that the Political Science Department’s sponsorship of the event does not mean that it is endorsing the event, and that the college administration is “not going to tell members of our faculty what they can and cannot choose to support.”

“If you want to go to a university where the government decides what kind of subjects are fit for discussion, I suggest you apply to a school in North Korea,” he said in a news conference at City Hall.

This may be a turning point in the public debate over the limits of criticizing Zionism and the state of Israel. In the past reflexive accusations of “anti-Semitism” drowned nuanced discussion on Zionism, Israel and Palestinian rights, now we are witnessing a hopeful sign of more balanced public discussion.

This also bodes well for those who are truly concerned about fighting anti-Semitism since it rescues it from the clutches of those who trivialize real anti-Semitism by conflating it with criticism of Zionism and Israel.

One can only imagine the Islamophobic repercussions that would have ensued if a lobby of Muslim organizations and lawmakers attempted a parallel attack on academic freedom. Hackles of Islamization and Islamic incompatibility with freedom would be endless.

Hikind gained his earliest experience in the early 1970s in local New York politics as an acolyte of Meir Kahane, the fanatical rabbi-turned-Israeli Member of Knesset who called for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and establishment of a theocratic state of “Judea” in the West Bank. “I’m proud of every single moment, let me make that very clear. Rabbi Kahane had a great influence on me,” Hikind declared in 2008. Under Kahane’s guidance, Hikind became active in the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a nationwide extremist network that attacked Arab-American and Soviet targets while rallying vigilante squads to “protect” working-class Jews living in African-American and Puerto Rican neighborhoods.

“[I]n some ways the beginning of Islamic terrorism in America. It was the first shot. A lot of us didn’t recognize it at the time.”

Sirhan Sirhan was an Arab Christian.

GaribaldiOfLoonwatch

BDS seems like a good non-violent way to combat the apartheid system. As far as the academic aspect of BDS it seems to have been misrepresented by many, as most in BDS are calling for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions and not individuals and scholars.

So you haven’t seen that YouTube video of the Orthodox Jew slapping his daughter about in public or heard about those hassidics who stone cars on sabbat? And as for jailing dissidents just look around the world – the USA extradites people for posting views that are half as bad as the people on numerous us websites
And gay people are persecuted in Christian Africa and Hindu India

Tanveer Khan

Ikr. The world is full of fools…

Leftwing_Muslim_Alliance

Are you sure you are in the correct chat room ? I ask this in the light of the above article makes you look really stupid.

Sir David

mjasghar786

What’s ironic is how pipes and Dershowitz are using arguments such as there needs to be an opposing viewpoint
Yet both have repeatedly taken lots of cash for events where their viewpoint was the only one allowed – at many colleges
There’s lots of articles on this at daily beasts open Zion – NY politicians have been calling for an attack on the univs funding and this has lead to the college downgrading its support and specifically putting itself as anti sanctions

GaribaldiOfLoonwatch

I think that is exactly what Bloomberg was trying to say. He even mentioned that those lobbying against the event made it a larger issue by centering so much attention on it.

Just_Stopping_By

It’s so sad when people try to prevent academics (individuals, schools, or, here, the political science department at Brooklyn College) from presenting their views and participating in scholarly or public debate. If academic freedom means anything, it is that we should give all academics the right to communicate through speech, publications, and presentations, and then let everyone listen and come to their own conclusions.

I am happy to denounce those who think that their politics justify attempts to prevent professors and schools from being able to engage in the free academic and public expression that let them engage with the rest of the world.

mindy1

Can they legally do that?? Shouldn’t colleges be places to express your thoughts?? Just arrainge a counter rally to tell the other side that’s all.